Not long ago, I had minor eye surgery and experienced one of the scariest moments of my life. While nervously lying on the operating table, I opened my eyes but could hardly see. Though my vision eventually returned, I have since wondered how difficult it must be for the visually impaired and legally blind to move through a world that has been constructed by those who can see.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s annual statistics, by the third quarter of last year, the number of people with disabilities had increased over the past decade from 908,719 in 2004 to 1,134,850 last year. Among the disabled, the number of the visually impaired had increased from 47,524 in 2004 to 57,076 over the same period. Today, roughly 5 percent of Taiwan’s population has some disability. Has enough been done to accommodate the needs of those in need?
LEARNING TO SEE THE BLIND
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The public often pose the greatest threat to the visually impaired. According to Eric Yang (楊聖弘) of the Technology Development Association for the Disabled (無障礙科技發展協會), bikers and mobile phone users can be a nuisance.
“People riding bikes on the sidewalk can cause big problems for us,” Yang said. “I was injured once when my white cane got stuck in a bicycle wheel.”
As technology continues to develop, more and more of the visually impaired can now travel independently with the GPS applications on mobile phones or guiding devices on white canes. However, Yang said another threat is the misuse of smartphones by those “phubbers” (低頭族), a term derived from the word “phub” — a portmanteau of “phone” and “snub” that refers to excessive mobile phone use.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
“There are more and more phubbers now, and they sometimes accidentally kick or break our white canes,” Yang said, adding that the visually impaired are frequently injured like this.
“Now I always tap my white cane on the ground really hard to make a loud noise.”
K. J. Tang (湯國基), chairman of the Blind Education Concerns Association of Taipei (台北市關懷盲人教育協會), is familiar with the problem. Tang said that he once collided with a mobile phone user. “So what? Kicking white canes is not against the law,” the inconsiderate person shouted at the vexed Tang.
Over the past few years, Tang says, careless pedestrians have broken over 10 of his white canes, with each cane costing over NT$1,000. He said that greater legal protection is needed for the visually impaired.
A LITTLE RESPECT
In recent years, the government has begun to pay more attention to the rights and needs of the visually impaired, tackling various challenges by amending the People with Disabilities Rights Protection Act (身心障礙者權益保障法) and related regulations.
For example, Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) provides personal guiding services for the blind and visually impaired. In 2013, a daily average of 400 visually-impaired people used the services, a figure that continues to grow.
Unfortunately, not all officials are so understanding. The College Entrance Examination Center (CEEC) came under criticism last year because it refused, even after repeated and strong appeals by students and parents, to change a new system for its General Scholastic Ability Test (學測) that was difficult for blind and visually impaired students to use.
Before the nine-in-one elections in November last year, the Taipei City Election Commission (台北市選委會) was also criticized for providing a DVD version of election bulletins that required complex manual operations,instead of a CD version.
“Since the city was doing this for the convenience of the blind, why didn’t it take their needs into consideration?” asked Huang Chen-hsiao (黃晨孝), a director at the Taipei Blind Massage Service (台北市按摩業職業工會).
WORTHY CAUSE
The above examples reveal three major problems. First, certain officials and agencies do not understand the needs of the visually impaired. Second, once informed of a policy’s shortcomings, they fail to remedy the flaws in a timely manner. Third, they simply lack “empathy” for those who have disabilities.
In a 2011 interview on TVBS, William Chen (陳長青), the secretary general of Taiwan Guide Dog Association (台灣導盲犬協會), revealed that he sometimes has no money to eat because of the high training costs for guide dogs.
To build a more friendly and caring society, it would be helpful if the public and business could donate to any organizations that help the visually impaired or legally blind because most are just surviving on a shoestring budget. As the Lunar New Year approaches, why not celebrate it by making a donation to a worthy cause.
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